


To Make The World A Better Place

by SophieRipley



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Magic, One Shot, Wizard's Oath, Wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8151970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/pseuds/SophieRipley
Summary: Judy Hopps wants to be a police officer so that she can make the world a better place...but one evening in the library she's presented with another choice...a bigger choice.





	

The quietude of the library had always been soothing to Judy.  Coming to the Bunny Burrow Public Library was a much-loved part of her childhood; she’d been coming here every day she could since she was nine years old, steeping herself in the law books and criminal justice texts the library offered, preparing herself for the career she was determined to be a part of.  She wasn’t a child anymore—had turned twelve years old just a few weeks ago, in fact—but still she spent every free moment browsing the judicial books.  Some of them she’d memorized and reread anyway just in case, and some she hadn’t yet gotten to thanks to her still-developing reading skills.  It wasn’t her fault that reading at a high school level wasn’t quite enough, but she was working on it and quickly.  It was hard work, but when she was a big-city cop she’d be glad for the effort.

So it was that she’d come to the library once again the moment her chores were done for the evening.  The older doe greeted her by name as she entered the dusty building and beckoned her over.

“Judy, sweetie,” said the melanistic old rabbit, whose name was Betty Briar. “I got in a new book yesterday and thought you might like to be the first to check it out.”  She handed it across the counter and Judy took it, looking at the title:  _Chaos to Order:  A History of the Legislation of Zootopia._   Judy looked up with wide eyes.

“Ooh, yes!”  Judy did an exciting hop and tucked the book protectively under one arm.  “Thank you so much Mrs. Briar!”

The older rabbit smiled back.  “I think you’re into the ‘T’s’ today,” said the librarian.  “Unless you’re going back to reread something?”

Judy shook her head, her ears flopping.  “Nope, getting something new.  I’m twelve now, I have to hurry and learn it all before it’s too late.”  And with that, she turned on her heel and went to the law section of the library, where she browsed for several hours.  During that time she revisited some old favorites and scanned through some of the ones she hadn’t yet picked up, and before she knew it Mrs. Briar was shuffling back to her back corner with her cane to fetch her.

“Sweetie, I have to close up,” said Mrs. Briar kindly.  Judy looked up and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll be up to check out in a minute.”  Had it been anyone else, Mrs. Briar would have insisted that she drop everything.  Judy had been there so often, however, that the elderly doe trusted her implicitly, so she smiled and went back to the front desk.

Judy sighed and picked up her books.  She never seemed to have enough time here.  It couldn’t be helped.  She went through the stacks putting back the old books she’d been re-reading and ran her paw along the spines of the shelved books as she walked toward the front.

Then a sharp pain lanced through her paw as a clump of fur on her finger caught in the binding of a book.  Judy snatched her paw back and glared at the offending tome…but then tilted her head.  How odd, she thought, that such a book was shelved in this section.  It had to be a mistake, for the title read: _Ordinances and Bylaws of the Cosmos:  A Practical Guide To Wizardry_.  Judy lifted it gingerly from the shelf and inspected the label, which only confirmed that it was in the right place.

She opened to the table of contents and was further befuddled.  Upon the simple page was listed in no-nonsense letters such chapter titles as “Preliminary Determinations:  A Question of Aptitude” and “Introduction to Spells and Bindings”.  She saw “Basic Equipment and Milieus” and “Psychotropic Spelling.”

The sound of Mrs. Briar shuffling things onto a cart a short distance away drew Judy from her confusion and she brought the book to the counter with the rest she’d picked out.

“Got everything picked out?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Judy hesitantly, setting the normal books down.  She handed the oddball to Mrs. Briar.  “I found this too, but I’m not sure it was in the right place.”

Mrs. Briar took it, looked at the title, and frowned.  Then, she scanned the barcode.  The computer made an odd beeping noise and Mrs. Briar’s frown deepened.

“That’s odd,” she said.  “Computer says it’s not in the system, and I don’t recognize it.  Did you want to check it out?”

Judy hesitated for only a moment…then she nodded.  “Yes, ma’am, it’s made me curious.”

Mrs. Briar smiled and pulled a sticky note and jotted down the book’s information.

“No worries,” she said cheerfully.  “I’ve got it noted down.  I trust you, keep it as long as you like.”  Judy thanked her and she went about scanning the other books out as well.

When Judy walked out of the library, it was well and truly dark.  She was accustomed, however, to walking home in the dark, and so she wasn’t afraid as she made her way through the outskirts of town and down the road to her family’s farm.  It wasn’t a terribly long walk for a healthy bunny such as herself, and in her distracted state it seemed even shorter than usual.  Before she knew it, she was inside and her mother was fussing at her.

“Judy, honey, you know we don’t like it when you’re home this late,” said her mother.

“Oh, leave the kitten alone Bon,” argued her father.  “She was just at the library.  You know ol’ Betty won’t let anything happen to her.”  Mom turned to bicker at Dad and Judy took the opportunity to slink away to the bedroom she shared with three other girls.  It was empty when she entered and she piled the normal books on her desk, leaving just the strange one in hand as she sat on her bed.  Judy wasted no time opening the book to read the first page, which turned out to be a forward. 

 _Wizardry is one of the most ancient and misunderstood of arts,_ it said.  _Its public image for centuries has been that of a mysterious pursuit practiced in occult surroundings, usually at the peril of one’s soul.  The modern wizard, who works with tools more advanced than snake’s blood…_

The modern wizard?  Judy’s heart beat faster as she read on, the book showing no hint whatsoever of being a joke.

 _However,_ continued the forward a couple paragraphs later, _for those willing to assume the Art’s responsibilities and do the work, wizardry has endless rewards.  The sight of a formerly twisted growing thing now growing straight, the satisfaction of hearing what a plant is thinking or an iguana saying, of talking to a stone or a star, is thought by most to be well worth the labor._

_Not everyone is suited to be a wizard.  Those without enough of the necessary personality traits will never see this manual for what it is.  That you have found it at all says a great deal for your potential._

Judy sat back looking at the book, heart beating quite fast indeed.  She took up the manual again though and continued to read through into the first chapter proper, and well into the next.  The information presented about aptitude was quite dense and Judy was proud as she worked through it that she could understand everything said.  The more she read the more sure she was that it was a joke, and the more excited she became that it might not be.

She saw one paragraph, however, that made her come up short.

 _Wizards love words.  Most of them read a great deal, and indeed one strong sign of a potential wizard is the inability to get to sleep without reading something first._   Judy thought of her justice books…the one under her pillow…and kept reading.  _But their love for and fluency with words is what makes wizards a force to be reckoned with.  Their ability to convince a piece of the world—a tree, say, or a stone—that it’s not what it thinks it is, that it’s something else, is the very heart of wizardry.  Words skillfully used, the persuasive voice, the persuading mind, are the wizard’s most basic tools.  With them a wizard can stop a tidal wave, talk a tree out of growing, or into it—freeze fire, burn rain—_ even slow down the death of the Universe.

 _That, of course being the reason there_ are _wizards._

Judy looked at the page solemnly, a spark of understanding piercing the fog of excitement.  Judy was a reader, yes, but only because she thirsted for the knowledge to become a police officer…and even that only to facilitate her greater goal:  to make the world a better place.  It had been her mantra for three years.  Every fiber of her being strove to fulfill that promise, that she’d give everything in her to bring good to the world.

This manual was telling her that she could do so in the most direct way possible. 

She turned to the next chapter, about history and the Wizard’s Oath.  It spoke of the beginning, of Life bringing about many Powers.  It spoke of the Lone One who held himself above the rest, who in the last moments of creation wove its own dread invention into the fabric of existence:  Death.  It spoke of how the other powers cast the Lone One out for it, and how Wizards were created to fight that fell gift.

_No one should take the Wizard’s Oath who is not committed to making wizardry a lifelong pursuit.  The energy invested in a beginning wizard is too precious to be thrown away.  Yet there are no penalties for withdrawal from the Art except the knowledge that the Universe will die a little faster because of energy lost.  On the other hand, there are no prizes for the service of Life—except life itself._

Judy took a long moment to consider the implications.  It seemed the work that was being presented was not glamorous, not easy, and was a commitment for a lifetime.  Would she, _could_ she take such an oath?  Spend her whole life serving others and preserving energy and life?

She nodded to herself.

“To make the world a better place,” she whispered to the book, “I’ll do anything.”

She turned the page, and the Oath was there.  It was a small, plain block of text in an otherwise blank page, and she read through it once…twice…three times silently, and a chill went down her spine as she understood its meaning.

She hesitated only a second before reading it aloud and with purpose, the words echoing in the empty room.

“In Life’s name, and for Life’s sake,” she swore, “I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life.  I will guard growth and ease pain.  I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened.  To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so—till Universe’s end.”

The words fell heavy into the silent room, and another chill went down Judy’s spine.  She mouthed those fateful words to herself once more, tracing that last line with her paw:  _I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life…._

She slept, and she dreamed of a better world.

Two hundred eleven miles away, a young tod was lazily leafing through his own manual.  He happened to notice the new entry:

HOPPS, Judy L.  
19 Warren’s End  
Bunny Burrow  
(233) 555-2478  
(novice, pre-rating)

Nick smiled to himself and instructed his manual to keep track of that entry for him.  Something told him he’d be seeing the new girl sometime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> All passages from Judy's manual are direct quotes from Diane Duane's original Young Wizards novel, So You Want To Be A Wizard. I do not own the rights thereof, nor those of Zootopia.


End file.
